Begun in 2010, this blog offers analysis and reflection by Susan Bailey on the life, works and legacy of Louisa May Alcott and her family. Susan is an active member and supporter of the Louisa May Alcott Society, the Fruitlands Museum and Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House.
Sarah Miller, the author of Marmee, A Novel of Little Women (William Morrow), believes that because Alcott wrote Little Women for children, she deliberately omitted some of the depth and nuance of her family members. “Louisa May Alcott was writing for children at a time when children’s literature was overwhelmingly didactic,” says Miller. “She felt obligated to insert the …
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Rebecca Lee never dreamed that doing her job would gain her a new literary friend. An audiobook narrator, improv actor, and teaching artist, Lee produced Work, A Story of Experience for audible.com. Work, one of Louisa May Alcott's lesser-known adult novels, tells the story of heroine Christie Devon's ambition and struggle to work outside the …
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Picture Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women: Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy March as mermaids adorned with long, graceful tails and pastel-colored hair, living under the sea. That’s what the niece of Megan Lois Whitehill inspired in the author when she requested a mermaid book for her birthday. The result is Little Women: Mermaid Edition (Rockwater Press). The result is a charming, …
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I am pleased to present this guest post by Lisa Francesca who is currently researching Carlotta Norton Smith, an art editor in New York’s Gilded Age. May Alcott Nieriker’s guide, Studying Art Abroad: And How to Do It Cheaply (Roberts Brothers, 1879), reads like a confidential chat over tea with a wise and experienced friend. …
My thanks to the Barrow Bookstore for this announcement: The Louisa May Alcott's Orchard House Summer Adult Education series is returning this week! July 10-14, 2022. Started in 1879 as the dream of Bronson Alcott, the best conversation series brings speakers from around this world. This year’s presenters will include Dr. Kristina West, …
I am pleased to present this guest post from Lorraine Tosiello, author of The Bee & The Fly and Only Gossip Prospers. I took a stroll in Louisa May Alcott’s Boston recently and will take you along! 20 Pinckney Street on Beacon Hill, where the family lived in the basement in lean years. I was …
On May 31st at 11am, I will be giving a 15-minute presentation on Lizzie Alcott that I believe will be groundbreaking. To see the talk, you need to register right away for this free international symposium, "Bearing Untold Stories: A Hybrid Symposium." Registration closes tomorrow. Here is the link: 31st May: Bearing Untold Stories: A Hybrid …
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I just received my order from the Houghton Library at Harvard for Lizzie's Hillside journal. Now you can read Lizzie's words in her own handwriting: https://aeon.hul.harvard.edu/aeonauth/aeon.dll?Action=10&Form=75&Value=818055 Presentation on Lizzie Alcott, sponsored by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Lancaster University, UK I would also like to announce that I will be presenting a …
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Here is my review of "The Bee & the Fly" on BookTrib: Two 19th-century writers lived just 74 miles from each other. One is the renowned author of Little Women, the other, one of America’s foremost poets. Emily Dickinson would undoubtedly have heard of Louisa May Alcott, yet there is no historical record of the …
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I am so pleased to present this guest post by y Gabrielle Donnelly, author of The Little Women Letters. Review Sometimes, it is the simplest ideas that are the most inspired. Take, for example, the two female giants of nineteenth century American literature, one all earth and fire, passion and adventure, the other pure air …
Louisa May Alcott is My Passion 